How This Ruth Bader Ginsburg Action Figure Raised $613,705

Written by
Katie Hintz-Zambrano

5:00 pm

07/12/18

Photos via FCTRY

There are devastating headlines almost everywhere we glance. So there’s something extra nice about good news stories popping up through the cracks. One such tale: A Kickstarter campaign for a Ruth Bader Ginsburg action figure that raised an astounding $613,705 in just 35 days, with a starting goal of a mere $15,000. To find out more about this sweet crowdfunding feat, Zoe Cronin of FCTRY answered a few Q’s for us.

When did the idea for this action figure come to be? “One of our first ever action figure collections, Little Giants, was a celebration of great minds throughout history. However, when they were released, the main criticism of the product was that all the figures were men. About 2 years ago, a few FCTRY team members had the idea to introduce a league of feminist action figures to the FCTRY spread. We ran a few surveys by our existing customers, and RBG initially wasn’t even on our list of people to choose from. She was a write-in candidate, if you will, and she won by a landslide. Over the course of the past two years, FCTRY has been developing the idea to make her into an action figure, and only now has it come to fruition. Very exciting stuff!”

How long did it take to meet the original $15,000 goal? “Just over an hour! Like I said, RBG was hugely requested by our existing customers, and it was a happy accident that we launched this Kickstarter right after the RBG documentary hit theaters.”

Now you’re at $600K+! What will you do with the extra funds? “More backers means more action figures to be made, so a lot of it is overhead to cover future production costs. However, we will be donating a percentage of funds to She’s the First, an awesome organization that provides scholarships, mentorship programs, and life skills training to young women from all over the world.”

Why do you think this action figure particularly went viral? “FCTRY was built on the back of making action figures, as our first product 10 years ago was our original Barack Obama action figure, which benefited his presidential campaign in 2008. Since then, we’ve run Kickstarter campaigns for many of our other figures, including Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Each of them have had an aspect of virality, but this has been our most successful Kickstarter yet. As I mentioned, we really got lucky in lining up the timing with the release of RBG’s documentary. Justice Ginsburg herself is going viral these days, which we love. She’s a modern day icon for resistance.”

To pre-order the RBG action figure, head over to FCTRY. And while you’re waiting for it to arrive in the mail (around September), check out the aforementioned RBG documentary, in theaters now.